[GWSG] Arctic CH4; active ALEC; 10 v. ALEC; expensive wait; CO basin drought; solar explosion?; 14 doomed terms; 34mw; help?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Peter Sinclair has assembled expert testimony concerning the rate of methane emissions from the Arctic and its impact.  Oxford’s Anton Vaks calculates that the tipping point past which methane emissions will cause sufficient heat to release further methane, making it impossible for us to intervene, is 1.5°C of warming.  We are more than halfway there.  James Box:  “This is an all hands on deck moment. We’re in the age of consequences.”  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/07/28/is-the-climate-change-awakening-a-methane-monster/

2.  ALEC is calling all hands on deck to preserve the current use of fossil fuels.  They cannot understand the consequences of what they doing in their greed.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/28/3461743/alec-annual-meeting-energy-climate/

3.  The Guardian’s Karl Mathieson supplies 10 welcome reasons to be hopeful that ALEC will fail and the rest of us will succeed.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/30/reasons-hopeful-overcome-climate-change-solar

4.  The President’s Council of Economic Advisors estimates that the cost of dealing with climate change will rise 40% for each decade of delay.  (Though if we wait ten years we may not be worrying about this at all.  See item 1.)  http://time.com/3049465/report-not-acting-on-climate-change-could-have-serious-economic-impact/

5.  A new study shows that ground water is being depleted six times faster than surface water in the Colorado River basin, which supplies many civic and agricultural centers.  http://news.sciencemag.org/earth/2014/07/western-u-s-states-using-ground-water-alarming-rate

6.  Mueller, a planned sustainable community in Austin, TX, has more electric cars per capita than any other US city and lots of solar power to charge them.  In an interview the Pecan Street Project research team looks at what spurs residential solar investment.  Solar growth is already exponential in the US; it seems to be set for explosive increase, first in CA.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/07/25/pecan-street-and-exponential-growth-of-solar/

7.  The Washington Post excerpts from Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway’s  The Collapse of Western Civilization fourteen concepts and terms which are due to become obsolete by 2393.  Among them are “environment” and “invisible hand.”  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/14-concepts-that-will-be-obsoleteafter-catastrophic-climate-change/2014/07/25/04c4b1f8-11e0-11e4-9285-4243a40ddc97_story.html

8.  Ontario has signed up for 34mw of energy storage from a range of technologies—thermal, hydrogen, batteries, and flywheels.  The storage approaches are partly matched to specific tasks, and are partly in competition.   http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ontario-contracts-34mw-of-all-of-the-above-energy-storage?utm_source=Efficiency&utm_medium=Headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily

9.  A Delaware tar sands oil refinery has asked for government assistance in protecting it from sea level rise.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/oil-refinery-threatened-by-sea-level-rise-asks-government-to-fix-problem/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520July%252030&utm_campaign=daily
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